Election Day and God’s Purposes Still Move Forward

A friend and supporter of this ministry called me the other day to ask if I had seen the latest article related to one of the presidential candidates’ emails. I said I hadn’t and in fact, try my best not watch or listen to any political news since news in general is rarely unbiased. We had a short laugh over that because it is true, in spite of what many choose to believe. Then again, many also choose to believe that God does not exist and they’re in for a huge shock once their life comes to an end on this plain.

Nonetheless, my friend mentioned that she had just read my latest article and commented that the world is crazy and one candidate in particular is nothing short of evil. I agreed completely. Another thing we both firmly agreed on is that God is still in control of all things.

One of the purposes that God gave us His written Word is to prove to us that He knows all things, including the future. Of course, the future to Him is far different from the future to us. What I mean by that is that we live in the present, to an extent. We can sometimes see somewhat clearly what has taken place and we call that history. Of course, the facts of history can be obfuscated, denied, ignored, or even changed to suit one’s purposes. That in no way changes the actual facts of history. It simply changes how certain individuals persist in seeing it. On any historical event or person, a plethora of books and articles have normally been written with various viewpoints offered about those events or persons. It is probably doubtful to find any agreeable consensus on any specific topic.

However, where God is concerned, since He is eternally present, He sees our past, our present, and our future at the same time and has no trouble discerning one from the other and keeping the facts – the actual facts – completely straight.

His Word – the Bible – presents many claims; what we sometimes call prophetic discourse or prophecies. Whether we understand them the way God wants us to understand them can be a problem for many. Nonetheless, the facts of prophecy do not change because of the many opinions offered on them. The Old Testament speaks of the coming Messiah and there are many passages of that section of Scripture, which chime in on Him. The Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 52-53 is a wonderful example of how the Bible exposes and presents truth long before it happened.

In 2016, we who are Christians, who have our eyes open to the reality of the Personage of the Suffering Servant, understand who Isaiah was referring to long before He came into this world via the virgin birth as the God-Man. Yet, in spite of the very clear truth presented in Scripture depending upon whom you side with, the Suffering Servant was not about Jesus. Some believe it actually teaches about the nation of Israel. Others believe it is simply poetic language. Still others believe it needs to yet find fulfillment.

This is the way Satan works. He takes the truth of God’s Word and attempts to destroy it. Arguably, he cannot actually destroy it as he has no power to accomplish such a Herculean task. What he can do (and does quite well too often), is to destroy (or rob) the truth from individual people before it has a chance to sink in. He does this through doubt, the pressures of life, or simply hubris on the part of the person he is attempting to blind. In other words, he really cannot change truth at all because God is truth (John 14:6). Satan can only change the way truth appears to people and we have his first successful attempt at that in the Garden of Eden after Adam and then Eve were set in place to tend God’s garden.

Satan thoroughly enjoys obfuscating as much truth as he can related to God’s sovereignty. He must do it to put forth his own agenda that God allows. When I say that God is sovereign, I’m essentially stating that everything God has put into motion moves toward fulfillment with respect to humanity, the earth, and all Creation. Isn’t that a kick in the pants?

Can you imagine how “at peace” you and I would be if we could thoroughly come to grips with this reality? There is nothing – not one thing – that you, me, or anyone else can do to keep God’s purposes from coming to fruition. His purposes continue toward fulfillment and therefore, closure.

Today is election day. I hope you’ve voted and then I hope you’ve given it to God. God won’t “wake-up” tomorrow (or worse, lose sleep tonight) over who gains the victory in this latest election. You know that, right?

God is in control. He is fully in charge. Do you believe that? Let’s face it, there are seemingly good reasons why we want “our” candidate to win. The pace of evil will slow down. It will take longer for things in society to get really bad. Ultimately though, whether we think so or not, we believe we have a hand in whether or not God is actually fully sovereign. We don’t.

If you will but take a long, hard look at how this country began and how far it has gone off the rails, it’s not as if there were not a thousand times God could have chosen to slow things down, but clearly has not chosen to do so. It wasn’t long after this country became the United States of America that we started seeing individuals elected to the Oval Office who were downright socialist in their outlook and position. They were even called that way back then, 100 years ago. It has been moving non-stop since then and what does this nation have to show for it? Prayer, out of schools. Creationism, gone. Ten Commandments? Can’t post them on government property. Roe v. Wade? Passed and has never been rescinded in spite of massive efforts to overturn it. Time and time again, presidents have appointed left-wingers as federal and Supreme Court justices. This country is where it is today because of everything that has occurred prior to today.

God stopped none of what has taken place that has worsened America. Yet, this country has also seen some interesting religious “revivals” occurring throughout the land. Whether they were real or imagined is another thing, but my point is that in spite of the groups of religious people who wanted to change society for the better, it hasn’t happened. In spite of all the talk, all the effort, all the prayer, supplication, and alleged sanctification, things have progressively worsened. We blamed Obama’s election on the fact that “evangelicals” stayed home. There was much more to it than that; a lot more, in fact, and some of it included voter fraud to a near-frightening degree.

I’m tired of hearing, “God gives us the leaders we deserve” followed by shouts of approval and applause. I guess that could be the flip side of the coin, but the side of the coin I’m looking at has to do with God’s sovereignty; His purposes and His program. Nothing stands in His way.

God is getting the job done and while it is correct and right to hate the evil that continues to grow in society, we must acknowledge continually that God is sovereign, that His purposes will be achieved and He will continue to bring them to pass even when it appears as though evil is winning the day. My goodness, even a cursory reading of Revelation helps us understand that evil will actually have its full day during the upcoming Tribulation period. But even then, it will not succeed. God will use it for His purposes and for His glory. Do you believe that? You should, though it is certainly not pleasant now.

If you wake up tomorrow extremely upset or even angry because your preferred candidate did not win, you are focusing on the wrong thing. Have your moment of angst, but then just as soon as you can, acknowledge His power, His glory, and most importantly, His sovereignty.

Things will continue to move towards doomsday. This earth – in fact, all of Creation – has a divine appointment with God when God the Son will physically return to this planet. It will happen when the pits of hell will have poured forth their demonic hoards and when people will sink lower than they are today because of the growing evil within them and all around them. There is nothing you or I can do to change any of it. We’re not even called to do it. We’re called to be fishers of men.

While it’s very good to know what God tells us about the upcoming days (after all, He did reveal them in His Word), we cannot live in fear because of them. That denies His sovereignty and specific will for our lives.

The Bible says that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). This doesn’t mean that the upcoming specific period of time is shortened so much that it means that it has a predefined specific amount of time to it when that time is up, He returns. If God simply let things go on and on, no one would survive. He would have nothing to come back to but thankfully, that will not happen. Nonetheless, this world is building consistently toward that period of upcoming darkness when relatively few will survive. However, eternity follows our very brief time here on this corrupt, dying, soon-to-be-destroyed earth, and that is what all Christians are to actually long for, look for, and understand.

The above verse points out exactly just how bad things will have gotten just immediately preceding His physical return to this earth. Fretting about it will serve no purpose for you. Trying to change what’s coming will also end up being a tremendous waste of time that you will have to answer for when you stand before Him. Most importantly, it will keep you from fulfilling your calling of the Great Commission.

Tomorrow is Wednesday. America will learn of a new president who will be sworn in this January, 2017. Regardless of who is in the Oval Office, God’s plans remain perfectly intact. Nothing will change for Him. Things will continue toward the culmination of this world and the eventual and ultimate return of God the Son.

Do you think Jesus would waste one moment worrying, being angry or upset, or doing whatever He could to change upcoming situations? No. He would be in communion with the Father and continue to submit His plans to Him, knowing that God the Father has all things under control.

For those of us who call ourselves Christians, we owe it to God to live like we are such. To do that means to live in a childlike faith that simply believes God is in control, that He will get us through in spite of what comes our way. There is no other alternative that I can think of as a Christian.

We must please God and we can only do so when we exhibit trust in Him, His ways, and His methods for accomplishing His will. It is the path to peace and joy.